Much like his team’s performance against Pakistan, skipper MS Dhoni’s behaviour and repartee has been engaging. He seems to have set aside his innate hostility towards the media to indulge in queries, answer them to the point and sometimes even take the pain to explain what guides key alterations made in the course of a match.
like he did when asked about the strategy behind promoting Suresh Raina to No. 4. “It is guided more by who is needed in what situation than the position of a player. Raina was better suited to deal with the situation at No. 4 than Ajinkya. This does not mean in the next match he will be No. 4,” he explained. Raina, incidentally, played the role assigned to him to perfection. He was promoted up the line and he went about his job meticulously. In fact, Raina’s unnoticed 74 off 56 balls was as special as Kohli’s 22nd ton. And it didn’t go unnoticed by Dhoni.
“In this game, Raina was given a platform to be expressive. What we really liked was he took a few deliveries initially and then went on to play the big shots. He played a calculated innings and picked the areas where he wanted to hit. So his innings was also special,” Dhoni said. He went on to explain how a positive approach was always there in the team but results were missing. “Hey, our approach was always positive but the result was not in our favour,” he said with a smile. “That’s something that’s really beyond our control. There are still areas where we need to improve, in the first five overs. In quite a few games, we have given too many boundary deliveries, and that’s where you have to actually put more pressure on the batsmen,” he said.
Summarising the Indian innings, he said: “After playing a few games here, I’ve realized it’s not easy to play in the afternoon, especially with the new ball. There’s a bit of pace to deal with initially, and it does a bit off the seam, but as the game progresses it gets better and better, and in the second half actually there’s not too much of swing. I felt the pace gets slightly better, it comes on nicely, there’s a bit more bounce, but overall the swing actually disappears to a lot of extent,” he said.
“In this context, the partnership with Virat and Shikhar was crucial because the ball was doing a bit. If you see the Pakistan team, their strength is fast bowling and they I bowled really well. Once the partnership was going, after that, once we got the start, we played good shots to put the pressure back on the bowlers,” Dhoni said.
So was it the big match challenge that brought out the best in the playersIJ “It was a bit of a mix of everything. The eight to ten-day break helped too. In our minds, we divided the Test/Tri series and the World Cup into two separate tournaments and so this one was a fresh start for us,” he explained.
Admitting candidly that removing Umesh Yadav after a five-over spell was no strategy but the need of the hour as “he was spraying some runs.” But as Yadav always has pace, Dhoni gave him a break and brought in Mohit. “Mohit has been really consistent with his line and length. He has that variation of pace. He uses the bounce well. It’s not like you have a fixed role assigned for everyone. This is the best that we have got, and we have to improvise and use it in the best possible manner,” Dhoni elaborated.
He showed humility when asked about the 6-0 record against Pakistan in World Cup. “Well, the record is good, but it’s something that I don’t want to get into because there will come a time when we will lose, irrespective of whether it happens this World Cup, next World Cup or four World Cups down the line. It’s not something that will stay until the world exists. No point in really thinking about it. As far as the World Cup record is concerned, we are definitely proud of it, but it will be broken at some point of time,” skipper said in a philosophical tone.